126 DIARY OF LONDON

Society; sent to me to take charge of the books, and re-
move them, only stipulating that I would suffer the
Herald's chief officer, Sir William Dugdale, to have such
of them as concerned heraldry and the marshal's office,
books of armory and genealogies, the Duke being Earl
Marshal of England. I procured for our Society, besides
printed books, near one hundred MSS. some in Greek of
great concernment. The printed books being of the old-
est impressions, are not the less valuable; I esteem them
almost equal to MSS. Among them, are most of the
Fathers, printed at Basil, before the Jesuits abused them
with their expurgatory Indexes; there is a noble MS. of
Vitruvius. Many of these books had been presented by .
Popes, Cardinals, and great persons, to the Earls of Arun-
del and Dukes of Norfolk; and the late magnificent Earl
of Arundel bought a noble library in Germany, which is
in this collection. I should not, for the honor I bear the
family, have persuaded the Duke to part with these, had
I not seen how negligent he was of them, suffering the
priests and everybody to carry away and dispose of what
they pleased; so that abundance of rare things are irre-
coverably gone.

Having taken order here, I went to the Royal Society
to give them an account of what I had procured, that
they might call a Council and appoint a day to wait on
the Duke to thank him for this munificent gift.

3d September, 1678. I went to London, to dine with
Mrs. Godolphin, and found her in labor; she was brought
to bed of a son, who was baptized in the chamber, by
the name of Francis, the susceptors being Sir William |

Godolphin (head of the family), Mr. John Hervey, Treas- ?

urer to the Queen, and Mrs. Boscawen, sister to Sir i

William and the father.

8th September, 1678. While I was at church came a
letter from Mr. Godolphin, that my dear friend his lady
was exceedingly ill, and desiring .my prayers and assist-
ance. My wife and I took boat immediately, and went
to Whitehall, where, to my inexpressible sorrow, I found
she had been attacked with a new fever, then reigning
this excessive hot autumn, and which was so violent,
that it was not thought she could last many hours.

9th September, 1678. She died in the 26th year of her
age, to the inexpressible affliction of her dear husband,y),h died, leaving no